I don’t think I’m a very good traveller, at least not in the long term. One thing I’ve struggled with during this voyage is being so far away from the people I love. I sometimes found it exhausting to put in so much energy making friends, only to say goodbye after a few short weeks knowing that I will probably never see those people again. Being surrounded by familiar faces is something that I completely took for granted before this voyage, and their absence is something I’ve never quite gotten used to.

I keep a running list of jobs to be done. ‘Replace head gaskets’. ‘Check rigging’. ‘Clean filter’. Stuff like that. The list is never finished, but I try not to let it get too long. The more important things, like ‘check rigging before next leg’ go straight to the top, and other things stay there for weeks, months or even years.

Today I was looking through the list and came across one or two things that have been put off for a while. ‘Replace engine belt’ and ‘oil change on high-pressure pump’. “I’ll do that in the next port”, I thought to myself. “Where are we going again?” “Oh, wait, that’s right………… we’re going to Bermuda.”

You know those feelings when you’re in the last few days of an epic holiday? The feeling of impending doom as your holiday nears its end and you have to get back to the ‘real world’? As your vacation countdown clock ticks away and you feel a tremendous pressure to fully enjoy every last moment? Well, these are what I am feeling now, in our penultimate destination of our three and a half year voyage: the British Virgin Islands, or the ‘BVIs’.

On Wednesday February 10th 2016, Bob hauled in her anchor and set sail from Marigot Bay, St. Martin, bound for Cartagena, Colombia. A little under 3 1/2 years later, on the afternoon of June 10th 2019, the same anchor found purchase on the same sand, and Bob found herself once again clustered

The photo above is looking up at Bob from somewhere in the depths of the South Atlantic Ocean.

We’ve made it from one side of the Atlantic to the other. Woohoo! Don’t get me wrong, there’s still a reasonable chunk of Atlantic lying between us and Bermuda that we’ll be tackling over the coming months, but it still feels like a major achievement to cross such a huge swathe of ocean. We’re currently in the Caribbean and working our way north, from Martinique to Nevis, where Alex will be the best man for his best friend’s wedding. I can’t think of anything better after almost two months at sea than a week of celebrations with good friends.

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Meet Bob

Bob is a small 36' sailboat built from fibreglass in 1977 and designed by the legendary Charlie Morgan. Despite her unforgiving temperament in offshore waters she has safely carried her humans across many of the world's oceans.